Suspension Seat Posts?
 

I've been considering a suspension seat post for my Spot aluminum-frame bike. I ride every day and only ever own one bike at a time. I'd would like to smooth out the rough spots in the road and was wondering if any of you have experience with these types of seat posts. I'm 6' tall and weigh 202 lbs.

The two I'm looking at are the Suntour and the KINEKT

Have any of you tried either of these brands? Is there another brand you'd recommend?

I'm open to any input you can give me.

The other major options are Cane Creek, Redshift, and PNW.

The simple telescoping springs are very common on e bikes and comfort bikes

I have used the kinekt for years and it has been good. my wife has one on the back of the tandem. I love the seat clasp it makes accurate adjustment and repeatability easy.

I'm leaning towards the Redshift now (which is totally human powered BTW). :)

I really just don't see the point of an electric bike myself but maybe that's just me. :twitchy:

Suspension seat posts fall into the category of saddles, meaning it's a hit or miss on trying them and finding one that you like, or perhaps not at all.

Having about a two dozen each saddles and seatposts on hand, each one of them and each combination of them gives a totally different response.

I feel that with the correct saddle, the suspension seatpost is not necessary at all.

I admit this is a bit harder for a typical consumer to figure out as they may have to buy and exchange a lot here. I'd find a good LBS that can help.

Besides cost, other trade-offs are more moving parts (noises, imperfect tolerances, and maintenance) and weight.

I feel that I'm using the correct saddle; a Brooks C17 that I love. But having it coupled to such a rigid frame leaves a lot to be desired. Especially for this 70 year old.

Kinekt above all. It works well. Cane Creek make excellent products but elastomers aren't as good as springs in this situation. Redshift has the adjustment at the bottom of the post so you cannot cut it down.

Any of the pogo posts are cheap garbage. Going up and down only isn't good for your knees and it changes your position on the bike. The proper isolation post like Kinekt or even CC moves you down but back as well to keep your knees and body in a similar position.

I have a Cane Creek on a LHT that is 60% off road and it feels worth it.

Thanks for your input.

I ordered a Redshift ShockStop from Amazon and it'll be delivered today. I'll try it out and see if it works for me and if not, I'll return it and try one of the others mentioned here.

It's old fashioned now, I have a Cane Creek thud buster as my only cushioning seatpost.

It really doesn't matter to me what's old fashioned; my comfort is the reason I've been researching these seat posts and that's probably the reason you're using one too.

I ended up going with the Redshift ShockStop and just go back from my daily ride. I couldn't be happier with this thing. I found myself chuckling a few times at how this seat post smoothed out the rough spots that I'm familiar with and have ridden over so many times over the years. My lower back felt so much better after this ride than it has in quite some time.

My brother is one of those guys that suffers with a bony arse. He is always looking for a softer ride and has spent quite a bit of money in his search. The one thing that really changed his ride was going to wider tires and a longer wheel base. The seat posts, bars and many, many, seats he has tried made little difference...

My Kinekt spring seatpost seems to basically remove about 3/4" to 1" worth of bumps, when set fairly lightly for my weight. It sure helps in a bumpy environment. I'm 65 and 215 lbs.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...84e63bcd4.jpeg
I've been riding with this new seat post for just over a week now and couldn't be happier with it. it really takes the edge off of the bumps in the road and my back feels so much better now.

Great to hear! Some back issues is why I'm looking at these.

This is the experience I've had and as a result, how do you adjust the correct position?

I am considering this one which is expensive, but got good reviews:

https://www.ergonbike.com/en/product...sattelstuetzen

I'm around 220 pounds and 6ft3. I use a Suntour on one of my touring bikes. I bought it originally when I was getting a bit of back pain. I set the pre-load fairly high so that in normal use it wasn't moving but if I hit a large bump it gave a bit of cushion. Obviously really big bumps you avoid or stand out the saddle. I've now gone back to a standard post as my back has improved and the benefit is no longer worth the extra 500g.

As part of a weght reduction I saved nearly a kilo with a new seat post, lighter pedals, and a lighter rear wheel.

I also have a Cane Creek Thudbuster on my MTB. That gives a much softer ride. For outright comfort it is the one to go for. There is a bit of back to front movement as well as up and down but you get used to it.

Essentially you can't really I mean you can put it up a little higher to adjust for how much it will settle with your weight on it but it is tough. With a isolation based post like the Kinekt you would essentially do the same but when you actually encounter a bump where you would engage the springs you wouldn't just be going up and down you would be going down and back so your knees will be in a better place.

The Redshift one is not a bad one but it is all adjusted at the bottom of the post so you cannot cut it down if needed and you have to deal with a greasy mess if you need to adjust and then you have to re-adjust your seatpost height each time and make sure it is aligned right. It is not a terrible thing but I would rather have my Kinekt. Now for a stem I think their stems look the best the Kinekt uses springs vs elastomers so they work a little better but they don't look as good.

My wife's hybrid has an old CODA suspension seatpost. It's about 25 years old. I took it apart about 10 years ago and overhauled it. It still works well, but the adjustment nut is at the bottom of the post, so it'a a pain to adjust and obviously it can't be cut down. But the combination of spring, elastomer, and needle bearings gives it a certain smoothness I have not experienced with the "thudbuster" style seatposts.

I was able to replace the old elastomer with two sections of rubber hose, one smaller diameter inside the other and glued together with rubber tire cement. It has been holding up well for the last 10-11 years.

Hope it works out. I used a simple suspension seatpost on my hardtail mountain bike back in the 90s and it worked ok. I wasn't a serious cyclist then but I do recall it smoothed things out on the trails. Definitely pogo-ed a lot.

The modern designs look promising, but I cannot get myself to accept the weight penalty. My buddy has the Cane Creek and he loves it. Says it feels like he has a rear flat, and that's a bit distracting.

.$.02 there are a lot of saddles out there that will provide cushion the Brooks cannot.

Is Suspension seat post a good alternative for actual wheel suspension?

IMHO, unless you are doing hard-core mountain biking on technical terrain, a suspension seatpost is a great alternative to a rear suspension. Generally speaking, they are lighter than a rear suspension, less fussy, and in many cases, they look better. With the explosion in popularity of gravel bikes, I'm surprised that we don't see more suspension seatposts being installed on gravel bikes.

Interesting, the thing I was wondering is if a seatpost suspension could cause some strain to your legs/arms because they are still subject to harsh conditions.

Glad to hear it's working well.

On my own Trek 970, I've got a Cirrus Kinekt. With the right spring choice, it does well to mute most of the sharper, shorter-duration bumps that I would otherwise feel. Nice addition, for a hardtail bike.